“Dad and Mom are not numbers!”
Honenu has represented many citizens whose fundamental rights to freedom of expression and freedom of protest have been violated with regard to pride marches. Please click here for a list of relevant posts.
Thursday, June 3, 3021, 8:23 Honenu sharply criticized the detention overnight of two minors who posted legal announcements of legal demonstrations in Jerusalem against the pride march expected to take place later today. The minors have already been in remand for many hours, and according to a decision by a police officer, they will remain in remand until the court deliberation.
Among the slogans on the announcements were “Dad and Mom are not numbers!” (a reference to official forms which have spaces for “parent one” and “parent two”), “The Jerusalem Pride March is a disgrace”, and a quote from Isaiah 1:12, “Who has required this of you, to trample My courts”.
Honenu described the incident: “It was an insane detention, the police lost their senses and trampled the rights of minors whose only crime was that they dared – in the only democracy in the Middle East – to post legitimate protest signs. This detention should cause every family and all parents in Israel to worry.”
Honenu Attorney Menashe Yado: “The police must release the minors immediately and allow them and the entire public to express legal and legitimate opposition to the march. Honenu will grant legal defense to anyone whose rights have been trampled while protesting against the march.
Update 13:02 – At 14:00, the detained minors will be brought to a deliberation at the Jerusalem Magistrates Court. Honenu Attorneys Rehavia Piltz and Menashe Yado will represent them.
Update 18:07 – Throughout Jerusalem, Honenu’s attorneys provided legal counsel to dozens of detainees, most of whom were pedestrians who were detained for no other reason than having either a hareidi or a religious appearance. Most of them were interrogated on suspicion of disrupting public order. Some of the detainees were minors, the youngest of whom was only 13 years old.
In one instance, police detectives detained without cause a youth who was on his way to a meeting in Center City Jerusalem. A woman and her husband were detained on the way to a medical appointment for her. She was released after a short time, but he was taken into the police station.
Honenu’s headquarters received many complaints of policemen and police detectives detaining vehicles and pedestrians at the entrances to Jerusalem without cause and for a long time.
Some of the detainees were transferred to the Central Unit of the Jerusalem Police for interrogation and some of them were interrogated at the Lev HaBira Police Station in Jerusalem. Honenu Attorney Rehavia Piltz assisted the detainees.